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Four academics from the University of Oxford were elected this year as international members. Among them two are from the Medical Sciences Division:
Andrew McMichael, Emeritus Professor of Molecular Medicine, Centre for Immuno-Oncology, Nuffield Department of Medicine.
Professor McMichael’s research has focused on T lymphocytes and innate immunity. Early in his career, he discovered the CD1 protein (which plays a role in immune surveillance) in a collaboration with Cesar Milstein. In the mid 1980s, Alain Townsend in his group made the crucial discovery that T lymphocytes react to short fragments of virus proteins that are bound to host proteins called HLA molecules. This finding transformed cellular immunology and is the basis of many developing cancer therapies and vaccines.
Gero Miesenböck, Waynflete Professor of Physiology, Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics
Professor Miesenböck laid the conceptual and experimental foundations of optogenetics, a transformative technology for studying the brain. He was the first to repurpose a natural light sensor—similar to those in our eyes—as a tool for remote-controlling genetically labelled nerve cells. The ability to create simple artificial messages, which the brain is then asked to decode, has given neuroscientists a fundamentally new way to understand the physical basis of perception, action, emotion, or thought.
More recently, he has used optogenetics to gain insights into the neuronal regulation and biological function of sleep. He and his team at the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour discovered that sleep-inducing neurons couple their electrical discharge to the use of oxygen in mitochondria, the energy-generating organelles that power all complex life. This work enabled a molecular interpretation of sleep pressure and identified aerobic respiration as a fundamental cause of sleep.
Congratulations to all the awardees!
Read the full story on the University of Oxford website.